Research Question: How can RI make funding more equitable? Author: Kiana Anderson
Clemmitt, M. (2014, June 19). Education. CQ Researcher. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com.uri.idm.oclc.org/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqr_ht_education_2014&type=hitlist&num= A good chunk of this summary article focuses on the funding in education. The issue of funding in education is divided into parts like, where US schools get their funding, where local schools get their funding, and the negative effects of spending cuts in our schools.
This article informed me about the roots of educational funding in the US. I think it is a good idea to know more about where the money comes from and how money plays a role in the students learning to form a general knowledge base about RI funding. This can help me better understand how RI can improve from where we are. An important point that this article makes is that when the US is in a recession, local school funds are down and therefore spending cuts are in order. This unfairly distracts the district from what should be their number one priority, which is student achievement. When spending cuts come, resources go. Sadly that means that students with learning problems do not get the attention that they need, special education teacher loose their full time jobs, and speech and physical therapy are no longer available for those who need them. This is just to name a few of the negatives of how spending cuts can hurt student prospects. An additional point made by this summary article is that with a funding gap between schools, comes the achievement gap in society. This article better informed my opinion of school funding because it aids me to realize how detrimental spending cuts can be. Cutting a schools funding in reality is taking away a students opportunity for success. Hall, P., & Simeral, A. (n.d.). Building Teachers’ Capacity for Success. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109002/chapters/Strength-Based_School_Improvement.aspx This scholarly journal writes to inform the public about what schools need to do to improve. One section specifically talks about funding. I better understood the problem of how we spend our money when I read this. Instead of having ideas ready to be funded or invest our money into student achievement, a lot of the time in the US school system we want spend our money on something rather than someone. For instance, a school might spend their money on school maintenance instead of more teachers that give the students the attention that they need. If schools could be more creative and have ideas ready to be funded like new math plans or science experiements, then the money that they recieve can be more beneficial for student learning. If all of the schools do this and the students benefit, then the students are all being subject to the opportunities neccessary for success and because they all have this shot at success, the funding is more equitable. Herszenhorn, D. M. (2007). Pupil Needs Shape Bedget for Schools in New York. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/nyregion/09schools.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Aw New York schools made a dramatic change in the way they budget their schools by basing their budgeting off of student needs. Students who are in the ESL program, are struggling academically, or have special needs are allotted more money to allow them more opportunities for success. It may seem unfair to some that schools with lower performing students will receive more money than before, however the incentive is that the schools will be allowed to keep the money if there is improvement in the pupil. I read this article because I was interested in the idea of student based budgeting and wanted to learn more about it. I am curious if this is a more equitable approach to school funding and I wonder if it was ever used in my high school. When reading this article, I became more informed about alternatives to school funding. I learned that in New York before this system was emplaced, about half the schools were over funded and the other half underfunded. This strengthened my knowledge about the equity of school funding and it makes me believe that this is a better approach to budgeting. If Rhode Island adopts this approach, I believe that urban city schools would benefit greatly without taking away from the educational needs of others.
Hill, M., & Willis, J. (n.d.). Budgeting Based on Student Needs. Retrieved from http://www.districtadministration.com/article/budgeting-based-student-needs
The article Budgeting Based on Student Needs overviews the benefits of having a school independently mangage their own budget. Essentially, the students come first.
I visualize the future that Rhode Island schools can have when I read this article. Student based budgeting allows for the success of students to come before the rules of school funding. This means that a school system will not be punished for low test score, rather supported so that they have a better chance of succeeding the next time. The student based budgeting system also allows for equity over equal funding. By the SBB system, authority is placed in the hands of the principals where they can then allocate money per student based on need. This article informed me of how innovative this new system will be if emplaced. I am better informed about a solid method that will support the students of America, especially those in urban city school and those who have special needs. This article exemplifies how Rhode Island can fund more equitably.
Public School Funding Unequal: State and Local School Finance Systems Perpetuate Per-Student Spending Disparities. (2012, September 20). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/state-and-local-school-fi_n_1898225.html
This opinion piece writes in favor of money allocation based on student need. It supports this claim by stating that inequitablility leads to under achievement of low income and minority classes.
The opinion of this article supports my believe that funding should be more based off of student need. States should look over their funding plans and formulas with students success in mind. If school resources were more abundant in areas with higher poverty levels, then the schools would be more equitable. The article informed my opinion on the matter when it reminded me that the taxes and fees are hardly equalized through the state funding formula. This relates to my research question directly. If all of the schools were to have the amount of resources necessary to meet the needs of their students, then the schools would prove to be equitable.
Overall Reaction to Your Research
When I first began researching, I was unsure of how Rhode Island could create a fair system of funding for public schools. My first idea for fair funding was that Rhode Island could just gather up all of the tax revenue and divie it up equally amongst the public schools in the state. However, my research taught me that this method, however fair, would not be entirely equitable. In order for schools in Rhode Island to achieve a certain level of equitability, more money has to be given to the schools that need it more. For instance, urban city schools that have low-achievement learners and ESL learners, need more money than suburban schools so that the urban city students can get the attention that they need to be successful. Currently in Rhode Island, we punish the urban city schools for low test scores by restricting their funds, when we should be supporting them and offering them more opportunities for achievement. Some schools around the country have adopted the student based budgeting system as a solution, where funding follows a student based on that students need. The student is being funded rather than the school. For example, a special needs, ESL, low-achievement learner, would be given more money than a high-achiement learner in a suburban school because the low-achievement learner needs the money more. As an incentive, the urban city schools would be allowed to keep the student's funds if the student improved his or her achievement level. This system can fix the problem of some schools being over funded and other schools being underfunded. This could be the solution for fair funding.
How does this research help us identify or refine a strategy to improve schools in Rhode Island?
Adopting student based budgeting as Rhode Island's strategy for funding could improve schools in Rhode Island. Like the other schools who have tried it around the US, students in urban areas are given more of an opportunity to succeed and they have more of an incentive to achieve more under SBB. Ultimately this would improve test scores and the urban learning environment. This method is more equitable than our system that we have now, where schools in affluent areas get more money than schools in rough areas becuase the amount of funding a school receives is mostly based off of that schools tax bracket. Under the SBB system, the focus of funding is entirely set on student achievement. This solution is equitable and beneficial for studnet learning.
Author: Kiana Anderson
Clemmitt, M. (2014, June 19). Education. CQ Researcher. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com.uri.idm.oclc.org/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqr_ht_education_2014&type=hitlist&num=
A good chunk of this summary article focuses on the funding in education. The issue of funding in education is divided into parts like, where US schools get their funding, where local schools get their funding, and the negative effects of spending cuts in our schools.
This article informed me about the roots of educational funding in the US. I think it is a good idea to know more about where the money comes from and how money plays a role in the students learning to form a general knowledge base about RI funding. This can help me better understand how RI can improve from where we are. An important point that this article makes is that when the US is in a recession, local school funds are down and therefore spending cuts are in order. This unfairly distracts the district from what should be their number one priority, which is student achievement. When spending cuts come, resources go. Sadly that means that students with learning problems do not get the attention that they need, special education teacher loose their full time jobs, and speech and physical therapy are no longer available for those who need them. This is just to name a few of the negatives of how spending cuts can hurt student prospects. An additional point made by this summary article is that with a funding gap between schools, comes the achievement gap in society. This article better informed my opinion of school funding because it aids me to realize how detrimental spending cuts can be. Cutting a schools funding in reality is taking away a students opportunity for success.
Hall, P., & Simeral, A. (n.d.). Building Teachers’ Capacity for Success. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109002/chapters/Strength-Based_School_Improvement.aspx
This scholarly journal writes to inform the public about what schools need to do to improve. One section specifically talks about funding.
I better understood the problem of how we spend our money when I read this. Instead of having ideas ready to be funded or invest our money into student achievement, a lot of the time in the US school system we want spend our money on something rather than someone. For instance, a school might spend their money on school maintenance instead of more teachers that give the students the attention that they need. If schools could be more creative and have ideas ready to be funded like new math plans or science experiements, then the money that they recieve can be more beneficial for student learning. If all of the schools do this and the students benefit, then the students are all being subject to the opportunities neccessary for success and because they all have this shot at success, the funding is more equitable.
Herszenhorn, D. M. (2007). Pupil Needs Shape Bedget for Schools in New York. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/nyregion/09schools.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Aw
New York schools made a dramatic change in the way they budget their schools by basing their budgeting off of student needs. Students who are in the ESL program, are struggling academically, or have special needs are allotted more money to allow them more opportunities for success. It may seem unfair to some that schools with lower performing students will receive more money than before, however the incentive is that the schools will be allowed to keep the money if there is improvement in the pupil.
I read this article because I was interested in the idea of student based budgeting and wanted to learn more about it. I am curious if this is a more equitable approach to school funding and I wonder if it was ever used in my high school. When reading this article, I became more informed about alternatives to school funding. I learned that in New York before this system was emplaced, about half the schools were over funded and the other half underfunded. This strengthened my knowledge about the equity of school funding and it makes me believe that this is a better approach to budgeting. If Rhode Island adopts this approach, I believe that urban city schools would benefit greatly without taking away from the educational needs of others.
Hill, M., & Willis, J. (n.d.). Budgeting Based on Student Needs. Retrieved from http://www.districtadministration.com/article/budgeting-based-student-needs
The article Budgeting Based on Student Needs overviews the benefits of having a school independently mangage their own budget. Essentially, the students come first.
I visualize the future that Rhode Island schools can have when I read this article. Student based budgeting allows for the success of students to come before the rules of school funding. This means that a school system will not be punished for low test score, rather supported so that they have a better chance of succeeding the next time. The student based budgeting system also allows for equity over equal funding. By the SBB system, authority is placed in the hands of the principals where they can then allocate money per student based on need. This article informed me of how innovative this new system will be if emplaced. I am better informed about a solid method that will support the students of America, especially those in urban city school and those who have special needs. This article exemplifies how Rhode Island can fund more equitably.
Public School Funding Unequal: State and Local School Finance Systems Perpetuate Per-Student Spending Disparities. (2012, September 20). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/state-and-local-school-fi_n_1898225.html
This opinion piece writes in favor of money allocation based on student need. It supports this claim by stating that inequitablility leads to under achievement of low income and minority classes.
The opinion of this article supports my believe that funding should be more based off of student need. States should look over their funding plans and formulas with students success in mind. If school resources were more abundant in areas with higher poverty levels, then the schools would be more equitable. The article informed my opinion on the matter when it reminded me that the taxes and fees are hardly equalized through the state funding formula. This relates to my research question directly. If all of the schools were to have the amount of resources necessary to meet the needs of their students, then the schools would prove to be equitable.
Overall Reaction to Your Research
When I first began researching, I was unsure of how Rhode Island could create a fair system of funding for public schools. My first idea for fair funding was that Rhode Island could just gather up all of the tax revenue and divie it up equally amongst the public schools in the state. However, my research taught me that this method, however fair, would not be entirely equitable. In order for schools in Rhode Island to achieve a certain level of equitability, more money has to be given to the schools that need it more. For instance, urban city schools that have low-achievement learners and ESL learners, need more money than suburban schools so that the urban city students can get the attention that they need to be successful. Currently in Rhode Island, we punish the urban city schools for low test scores by restricting their funds, when we should be supporting them and offering them more opportunities for achievement. Some schools around the country have adopted the student based budgeting system as a solution, where funding follows a student based on that students need. The student is being funded rather than the school. For example, a special needs, ESL, low-achievement learner, would be given more money than a high-achiement learner in a suburban school because the low-achievement learner needs the money more. As an incentive, the urban city schools would be allowed to keep the student's funds if the student improved his or her achievement level. This system can fix the problem of some schools being over funded and other schools being underfunded. This could be the solution for fair funding.
How does this research help us identify or refine a strategy to improve schools in Rhode Island?
Adopting student based budgeting as Rhode Island's strategy for funding could improve schools in Rhode Island. Like the other schools who have tried it around the US, students in urban areas are given more of an opportunity to succeed and they have more of an incentive to achieve more under SBB. Ultimately this would improve test scores and the urban learning environment. This method is more equitable than our system that we have now, where schools in affluent areas get more money than schools in rough areas becuase the amount of funding a school receives is mostly based off of that schools tax bracket. Under the SBB system, the focus of funding is entirely set on student achievement. This solution is equitable and beneficial for studnet learning.